“Want to know what accessories and appliances can be used with Apple’s HomeKit?” Joseph Keller reports for iMore. “Here’s a list of HomeKit-enabled products available right now!”
“HomeKit is a great way to control your home from your iPhone or iPad. You can do everything from set the temperature to turning your lights on,” Keller reports. “You can even control your entire house with Siri. But knowing which products work with the system can be confusing.”
“But we’re here to help with that, with this list of all of the accessories and appliances that Apple says work with HomeKit,” Keller reports. “We’ll continually update this list as more HomeKit products come to market.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is an excellent resource and there are more HomeKit-capable devices that you might think!
I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I’m reposting a few thoughts for the benefits of others.
I did extensive research on the best HomeKit compatible:
1) door lock
2) lights
3) Thermostat
4) Garage door opener
5) Automated blinds
6) Water Heater
At the end of it all, the clear winners for me were the Ecobee3 thermostat, the Schlage Sense (not connect), and the Philips Hue/Lux lighting system.
The most delightful items have been the ecobee3 and the schlage sense. They both exceeded my expectations.
The Philips hue is good, but it met, not exceeded my expectations, and they’re quite expensive.
As for window blinds and garage door opener, there are a few companies that offer HomeKit compatibility (Serena by Lutron, Chamberlain myQ) but they were quite expensive for what I’d get. I’m looking into maybe DIYing the blinds. They are literally $400-600 a window, and I count 12 windows in my house.
I ended up with a wifi compatible water heater, but no home kit (Rheem). Again, it just wasn’t worth it at this point. I get to turn the water temp up and down, and monitor the heaters health remotely, but not through HomeKit. But again, I don’t see a reason I’d interact with my Water Heater that much.
Next up, for our home is definitely a smart door bell with camera. From what I hear, the August is not that well regarded. It had good reviews with publications, but actual home reviewers complain about the image quality and video lag when you’re away. Right now I have my eyes on the SkyBell HD which should have HomeKit compatibility any moment.
Which of those require an Internet connection to send data to and from a remote server, I wonder? Personally, I’m not interested in any solution that won’t work with zero internet access.
My lock is Bluetooth, so that’s zero Internet. In fact, to be able to remotely unlock the door requires an AppleTV within Bluetooth range. The Philips Hue are WiFi, but work without Internet. The ecobee3 strong urges a constant internet connection, for features such as comparison to other households, and email notifications (if sensors disconnect for example). But again, it will function over WiFi LAN.
Sense will need a firmware update to work with iOS 10
I’ve used Schlage Sense all through my beta testing of iOS 10. The native app and Siri work fine. Perhaps you mean that an update is needed for Home to work with it?
MDN, I’m surprised you promoted a page that just copied an already existing and more frequently updated official Apple webpage: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204903
Go with this one instead, if anyone is creating bookmarks. It will at least be updated.
At least the linked article is grouped by category of device.